Where's the "Back to the Future"-style DeLorean time machine when you need it?

W/R had a couple of baffling conversations on Thursday, the day Muncie Building Commissioner Craig Nichols filed his petition for a plea agreement in U.S. District Court. Nichols said he was pleading guilty to one count each of money laundering and wire fraud and 32 other counts are to be dismissed.

Contacted for comment, Mayor Dennis Tyler said he didn't know anything about the plea agreement.

Then, after the initial story was published online, the city said Nichols actually wasn't the city building commissioner: He had resigned Wednesday, a few hours before the guilty plea petition was filed.

Never mind — or as the young people text, nvm — that W/R had asked to be informed when and if Nichols was no longer building commissioner, and that Rick Lorrison was still identified as "interim" building commissioner on the city's website.

Then, several hours later, an official contacted W/R to say that actually, the city considered Nichols’ resignation to have been effective Feb. 15, 2017 — the day after federal criminal charges were filed against him.

That’s despite the fact that the city never acknowledged that before the day of his guilty plea petition and accepted his resignation the day before his guilty plea petition was filed.

Amother house candidate

Make that three candidates for the Indiana House seat representing District 33, which includes Jay, Randolph and eastern Delaware County, including some precincts in Muncie.

Republican nominee John Prescott and his Democratic opponent, Winchester Mayor Shon Byrum, have been joined in their race by a Libertarian, longtime Winchester lawyer Dale Arnett.

The district Republican incumbent, Greg Beumer, did not seek re-election.

Beumer ran unopposed two years ago. In 2014, he won nearly 60 percent of votes cast in a race against Byrum (36.2 percent) and Libertarian Zeb Sutton (4.2 percent).